Solid state source of radiant energy having a controllable frequency spectra characteristic

ABSTRACT

A solid state source of radiant energy having a characteristic frequency spectra with a high frequency cutoff  nu co, which is a function of the applied voltage value. The source is a metal-insulator-metal tunnel junction, wherein the insulator layer is relatively thin with respect to the metal layers and inelastic tunneling occurs. The improvements comprise small metal particles placed close to the tunnel junction surface to function as scattering centers for externally coupling surface plasmon modes.



